The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
The introduction of multimedia players to the consumer world has revolutionized the way users watch and record video programs. Some multimedia players, such as digital video recorders (“DVRs”), eliminate many of the complications of VCRs and the need for video tapes. DVRs record television programs on a hard drive that is capable of storing a large number of television programs.
Sophisticated, modern DVRs are capable of scheduling the recordings of programs that are to be televised some time in the future. If a DVR user is interested in recording all episodes of a televised series, then the user can instruct his DVR to get a “season pass” for that series. In response to such an instruction, the DVR automatically determines, from electronic programming guide (“EPG”) data, times at which episodes of that series are going to be televised in the future. Usually, whenever an episode of the selected series is about to be broadcasted, the DVR automatically tunes to the channel on which the episode is going to be broadcasted and records that episode on the DVR's hard disk drive. For as long as the recorded episode remains on the DVR's hard disk drive, the DVR's user can instruct the DVR to replay the episode to the user's television. Conveniently, this allows the user to watch programs in which the user is interested at times other than those program's broadcasting times. The user does not even need to know, beforehand, the exact times at which those programs are going to be broadcasted.
When a DVR schedules a program for future recording, the DVR adds the program to a “to do” list that the DVR maintains within the DVR's own storage mechanisms. A DVR schedules a program that is specifically designated by a user and/or that is predicted to be of interest to the user. Whenever a program on the DVR's “to do” list is broadcasted, the DVR automatically records that program. Over time, a DVR may record and store numerous programs.
When a user decides to view a program using a DVR, the user may view a recorded program or a “live” program. The user may use EPG data to view the names of currently playing or future programs. Additionally or alternatively, the user may view a recorded list that lists the programs that have been recorded by the DVR. Because the number of programs on either list tends to be too great to fit legibly on a television (or computer) display, the lists are divided such that a user must scroll through two or more “page views” that each lists a different plurality of programs.
In one approach, for each page view, a program selector object automatically highlights a certain program in the page view, such as the top-most program in the page view. The program selector object is a display object that highlights a particular program. In order to select the particular program for viewing, a user simply selects a single button on a DVR remote control. If the user does not wish to view the highlighted program, then the user must select an up arrow or a down arrow on the DVR remote control to cause the program selector object to highlight a program that is displayed above or below the currently highlighted program. The user may also select a page up or down button on the DVR control to cause a new page view of programs to be displayed.